B-band absolute magnitude versus redshift for all the VVDS-Deep sources with z_spec ≤ 1.2. Vertical solid lines identify the redshift intervals in our study, named z_r,1 =  [0.2,0.65) and z_r,2 =  [0.65,0.95). The horizontal solid line represents the selection of the principal galaxy sample, M_B,1 ≤  −20 − 1.1z. The dashed line shows the limit of the companion sample down to μ ≥ 1/10, M_B,2 ≤  − 17.5 − 1.1z, while the dash-dotted line shows that we are complete in both redshift bins when we search for μ ≥ 1/5 companions, M_B,2 ≤  − 18.25 − 1.1z. (A colour version of this plot is available in electronic form.)